Beholder targets Vanity Stakes in June

ARCADIA, Calif. – Beholder, the three-time Eclipse Award winner, is tentatively scheduled to have her first start of 2016 in the $400,000 Vanity Stakes at Santa Anita on June 4.

Trainer Richard Mandella said that Beholder is likely to have her first workout of the year around March 1 and has shown progress since she returned to training with his stable at Santa Anita in January. Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder, 6, is being pointed for major stakes in the second half of the year. In 2015, her wins included the $1 million Pacific Classic against males at Del Mar in August and the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes against fillies and mares at Santa Anita in September.

Beholder was scheduled to start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland last October but missed the race after she was found to have irritation in her lungs and blood in her trachea. This year, the Breeders’ Cup races will be held at Santa Anita on Nov. 4-5.

The Vanity Stakes is a Grade 1 for fillies and mares on the main track and will be run at a mile this year, a furlong shorter than in past years.

“That’s a race I’ll shoot for,” Mandella said. “The last half of the year is what I’m looking at.”

Beholder has won 15 of 20 starts and earned $4,436,600. By Henny Hughes, Beholder was the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012, champion 3-year-old filly of 2013, and champion older mare of 2015.

Stellar Wind and Taris – two of Beholder’s rivals in the older female division – are on course for races in the spring.

Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015, will have her first workout of the year in March, trainer John Sadler said.

Taris, the winner of the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes on Jan. 16, worked a half-mile in 49.20 seconds on Friday. Taris missed training after the La Canada because of illness but has resumed full exercise, trainer Simon Callaghan said. He said a start in the $500,000 Santa Margarita Invitational on March 19 is possible.

Mandella has a promising 4-year-old filly in Dreamologist, who won for the third time in her six-race career in an optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs in Friday’s first race. Dreamologist led throughout and won by 3 1/2 lengths under jockey Flavien Prat.

“She’s getting better,” Mandella said. “She wanted to panic a little bit when she was younger. She’s learning to ration [her speed] and getting more professional.”

Dreamologist could start in the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Los Alamitos on April 23.

Friday’s first race was scheduled for turf but was transferred to the main track because of wet weather on Wednesday and early Thursday.